Monday, April 28, 2014

Friday evening, Ava and I went out for a little girl time. I needed to pick up something for a school project at Hobby Lobby so we wandered around there for a while. She loved looking at all the decorations. After that we did a couple more errands, and then ended our night at a new local cupcake shoppe! We brought some home to share with our boys! Ava loved the alone time with mommy!

On Saturday, I wanted to get the kids out of the house for just a little bit so that Zach could have some quiet time to work on his paper. We went to play at the playground at one of the schools close to our house and they had so much fun.

After that we had to run to a grocery store to get a couple things we can’t get at Wal-mart anymore. They BEGGED to ride in the car shopping cart. Observations: 1. Ava is almost too big for this cart. 2. The quiet provided during the shopping probably isn’t worth the epic fit Reed had when it was time to get out.

Later that afternoon, we headed up to Fayetteville to see our friends. We hadn’t been able to see them since they moved into their new house last fall. We had to be in NWA Sunday morning for our niece’s baptism, so we just stayed the night with them. They live right by a river and we went down there for a while after dinner. The kids loved throwing rocks.

When I went up to bed, I noticed Ava was snoring LOUDLY. She snores quite a bit so that’s not atypical. In fact, I’ve questioned her ped about it before but he’s said they don’t usually like to do anything until they are older. Anyway, She would snore and then all of a sudden, she’d just kind of whine out and then she’d start crying. I had no idea what was wrong, but she woke up several times doing this. We finally got some good sleep between 3:30 and 5:30, when Reed decided to wake up for the day. Since we were all confined to the room so as not to wake others, it was awful. He was a menace. Zach said we aren’t traveling again until we got on vacation in July – ha!

Anyway, Ava got up and told me her throat hurt. I wondered if it was maybe because of all the snoring. After she got a shower, she got dressed and went downstairs and then came right back up. She said she was just tired and laid down and went back to sleep. She NEVER does this so at this point I figured something was wrong. We let her sleep and all got ready for church and the baptism, and when I woke her up, she said her throat hurt. I got her dressed and took her downstairs and borrowed their temporal thermometer which said she had fever. So we loaded up and headed toward the church, deciding I’d go on with Reed and catch a ride home, and he and Ava would come back and go to the walk-in clinic. We got to the church and poor Ava was so sad and disappointed she couldn’t stay. She had kept telling us she felt fine and wasn’t sick, but it was obvious she was.When my mom pulled in, I asked her if we could ride home with her and she came and used her flashlight on her phone to look in Ava’s mouth and she said it looked awful. So, off she and Zach went to the doctor. The doctor did confirm via look and a swab test that she has strep. :( She was pretty miserable but perked up considerably by the evening. Hopefully after one day home resting, she will be good as new. I hated she had to miss out because she was so sad she couldn’t stay.

The doctor also told Zach that Ava’s tonsils were very big and infected. I’ve often wondered if she needed them removed because of the snoring issue. I’ve done some research recently and there are a few other things that she goes through that can be attributed to snoring and sleep apnea. The doctor was kind and said he wasn’t trying to undermine our doctor, but that he’d also recently just gone through this with his 8 year old. Before we had left this morning, I had told Zach I thought it was something we should revisit, and this just confirmed to me that we need to be proactive in pursuing whether or not this is an issue.

The baptism was sweet and we were so glad to be there for Caroline’s big day. Afterward we headed back to their house for a lunch. We had a great day!We had a good weekend and hopefully after this, we can send the sickness away from our house for a while!

Friday, April 25, 2014

Oh, Friday. Hello again. Good to see you. I had grand intentions of blogging more this week, and then, well life happened.

Confession #1 – Reed woke up Tuesday night screaming and had a vomit covered bed. Hello, stomach bug. We were SO not happy to see you. He had a pretty rough next few hours. He got some relief around 9:30 am Wednesday morning, but his fever stuck around through part of Thursday. Zach stayed home with him Wednesday and I stayed home with him Thursday. We’re hopeful this doesn’t visit anyone else!

Confession #2 – Earlier in the week, I got this text from Reed’s teacher.

I started laughing so hard sitting at my desk reading this. We had gotten donuts Sunday morning and had a twisted one left. On Monday morning, instead of cutting it in half to split for him and Ava, I just untwisted it and gave them each a spiral. It made quite the impression on Reed.

Confession #3 – Thursday while I was home with Reed, we had several thunderstorms roll through which made a perfect day at home. I confess that while Reed was napping, I watched the movie Fireproof. Yes, yes, I know, it’s such a cheesy movie but I love it. I usually watch it once a year (usually when Zach is out of town in February, but he didn’t go this year so I watched it now!), and I just love it.

Confession #4 – Monday morning it was sprinkling and of course that meant Reed needed to use his new umbrella!

Confession #5 – I just love my girl to pieces. She’s growing up into such a sweet young lady!

Confession #6 – Thanks to my marathon cleaning session last weekend and due to the fact that we’ve been on top of picking up, and thanks to my extra day at home this week, our house is clean and I don’t have to worry about it this weekend. WOOHOO! That, my friends, makes for a happy weekend!

Monday, April 21, 2014

We had such a lovely Easter! We decided, based on how horrid Reed usually acts during church, that going at our semi-normal time of 8:00 a.m. was the best shot we had for him behaving. In order to get out the door more easily, we decided that the Easter Bunny would make his stop at our house while we were gone to church. That worked out PERFECTLY and it may be how we do it from now on!

We got up and got ready and, surprisingly, the kids got dressed easily and were SO cooperative for photos, which is NOT typical. I was tickled that I got some great photos and got them fairly easily and without having to take a bazillion!

These are two of my favorite photos of the day, especially the 2nd one! I love how Ava is looking at Reed like he is crazy!

Reed behaved fairly good at church, thankfully. Before we left, I set out their Easter baskets while they waited on me in the car. Afterwards, my sister drove me back to the house where we hid eggs while Zach took the kids to get a donut. When they got home, everything was ready!

Funny story that I want to remember about this Easter: the Easter Bunny brought Ava a Princess Anna dress from Frozen, “Oh, I like this, but I didn’t want this one!” Well, sorry sister, but you and every other girl in America want the Elsa dress and this mama will not pay $200 for one! Ha!

Reed LOVED this Mickey umbrella and shirt that the Easter Bunny brought him!

We later went over to my grandma’s house for lunch, before heading over to my aunt and uncle’s house for the big Easter egg hunt. The kids are always so excited for it, and truthfully, the adults love it, too!

Once Reed got to the backyard and saw the play set, he didn’t care about hunting eggs anymore. That’s what Ava did about four years ago, too. haha!

He did join in some fun a little later and found some chocolate and decided to just help himself!

When Ava was telling Reed about today, she said “REED! We don’t even have to take a nap!!!” And true to form, they did not. But we had two VERY tired children and when Reed finally sat down and stopped moving, he crashed almost immediately!

One of my very favorite parts about the day was on our way to church when Reed told us this was a holiday. We talked to him about how Jesus died on a the cross for us and he said “He did?” and then we told him that on Easter (today) He rose from the dead. Reed’s responses were just so cute and funny. His little mind was definitely taking it all in.

We are so blessed and I’m so grateful for Jesus’ sacrifice and the opportunity to celebrate Him as our risen Lord!

Friday, April 18, 2014

Happy, happy 30th birthday Zach! I’m so thankful to spend another year with you and I hope this year is filled with so many wonderful things for you!!!!

Thank you for being such a wonderful husband and father. You give so much to us through your hard work and dedication to both us and your job. We are all so proud of you! I have so much fun living life with you – you constantly make me laugh and I’m so thankful the love we have continues to grow and is stronger than ever!

You are the best father I could ever imagine for our children. I’m so thankful for the role you play in their lives and for the way you are so involved in their lives. They love you more than you know!

Thursday, April 17, 2014

It seems like the days are passing by so quickly. There are so many things that I just want to soak in and remember because my kids are just growing up before my eyes. These are just a few random memories I want to remember forever.

Ava fights bedtime so hard, and one evening, she was sitting on the couch watching something on my iPad and I went to put Reed in bed and came back and found her like this just a minute later.

She wanted to take a picture with me one night and on a whim, she grabbed my face and kissed it. I LOVED this, especially because she did it all on her own.

One day last week I got a text from one of Reed’s teachers with this photo. I sat at my desk and cracked up! I love this silly boy and it made my day to see this!!

He has been fighting bedtime like CRAZY lately. He just doesn’t want to go to his bed. So this one night after he screamed in bed for a while, I let him come lay down on the couch. He was asleep almost instantly. I think realized he’s gotten so tall. I just can’t believe he’s so big.

We had a nice day of weather over the weekend and the kids wanted to play outside for a while. As we were out there, Ava said it was “sooooo hot” and went inside. The next thing I knew, she was outside in her bathing suit. Then she got her blanket and sunglasses. 5 going on 15?!

Getting a photo of them together is like pulling teeth. The face Reed is making in this photo is hilarious. He has no poker face. What you see is what you get with him!

Reed didn’t nap very well on Sunday. He woke up after a very brief nap and was still very cranky and whiny. So he snuggled up in my lap and fell back to sleep. It’s so rare that I get snuggles for him, so I put a blanket on and just sat there enjoying that rainy afternoon holding my sweet baby! I love how he put his hand on his little face.

I love having this blog to look back on memories. I read old posts sometimes and am amazed at how easy it is to forget. I’m so grateful for this little space and for the memories that fill it!

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Friday is Zach’s 30th birthday. I’ve known for a while that I wanted to have some sort of surprise party for him, but I truly had no idea what to do or where to have it. A couple of weeks ago, we ate dinner at one of our favorite Mexican places and I noticed a sign that said “party room”. I made him take the kids out to the car so I could pay and inquire about the room!

Once I figured that out, the rest was easy! We surprised him this past Saturday. His parents and grandma came in, my parents came in, and several other friends came! The best part? He didn’t have a clue!!!!!!! Usually I cannot surprise him at all – he always guesses his gifts and I was so hopeful that I could pull this off without him knowing. And I did!!!!

Reed ate pretty much an entire bowl of cheese dip and salsa. He just kept shoveling it in!

I was so excited to get to do this for Zach. He works so hard for us and does so much, and I often feel like he inadvertently gets overlooked. He doesn’t like a lot of fanfare over himself but I definitely think 30 is a time to celebrate!! If you’ve never had a surprise party for someone, I highly recommend it – it’s so fun!!!!